President Moon Jae-in will host a luncheon with the leaders of South Korea's five major political parties next week to discuss key pending issues including national security, his aides said Friday.
The meeting, to be held at the presidential compound Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday, is intended to brief them on the outcome of Moon's recent summit diplomacy, according to Jun Byung-hun, chief presidential secretary for political affairs.
"It's expected to serve as an opportunity to have in-depth consultations with the heads of the ruling and opposition parties on the diplomatic and security situations surrounding the Korean Peninsula," Jun told reporters.
The announcement of the luncheon schedule came amid the Moon administration's pursuit of opposition parties' cooperation in handling bills on extra budgets and a change in the organization of government offices.
Earlier in the day, two conservative opposition parties agreed to return to parliamentary sessions, a decision apparently affected by the controversial Labor Minister nominee Cho Dae-yop's withdrawal from consideration.
The National Assembly's budget committee soon started a review of the 11.2 trillion won (US$9.8 billion) supplementary budget bill aimed at helping create jobs.
Moon is expected to use the meeting to again stress the importance of passing the bill.
Moon had his first summit talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House late last month, followed by a trip to Germany for a G-20 session during which he had a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings with global leaders. (Yonhap)
